St. Patrick heard the voice of the Irish calling to him, saying, "Come holy boy and walk amongst us again."
May we also hear Celtic voices both past and present—the ancient lives, the immigrant ancestors, the modern day wayfarers—and learn from their stories.

Jul 5, 2010

The Meaning of Ireland

Ireland in Irish is Éire or in old Irish, Ériu, which is the name of a goddess. In fact, many of the names of places in Ireland are derived from the names of gods or goddesses, such as the River Shannon, named for the goddess Sinann.

The English version of the name is Erin, and you've heard this in the phrase Erin go bragh, or "Long live Ireland!"As a result, the name Erin is popular for girls, but even the name Ireland has been used. Alec Baldwin and Kim Bassinger named their daughter Ireland, and I once signed a copy of Brigid of Ireland for a pregnant woman who planned to name her baby Ireland.

Caesar called Ireland Hibernia in Latin, which means wintery. He thought the island was at the end of the earth. You've probably heard of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians, and that's where the name comes from.

The ancient Greeks used the name Ierne, and it appears on Ptolemy's map around 150 AD.

Postage stamp from Ireland.

Like so many other things about Ireland, the name is filled with mystique and romance. But basically, the name refers to mother earth from which comes all life.

Ireland

It's the one place on earththat heaven has kissedwith melody,mirth,and meadow,and mist.

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Cindy Thomson's new fiction series, The Ellis Island Series, will be published by Tyndale House Publishers beginning in 2013. She is the author of Celtic Wisdom, Treasures from Ireland (Lion, 2009). She has also written a historical novel, Brigid of Ireland (Monarch, 2006) and co-authored a baseball biography, Three Finger: The Mordecai Brown Story (University of Nebraska Press, 2006) with her cousin Scott Brown. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines. She writes full-time from her home in Central Ohio and mentors writers through the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild.